BitLit announces HarperCollins ebook bundling pilot programme

In a potentially major gain for the ebook-bundling concept, BitLit today is announcing its first deal with a Big Five publisher. HarperCollins (US) has entered what is being described as a pilot programme with the Vancouver-based BitLit to offer discounted ebook editions of print books that readers already own.

“This is a limited set of titles and it’s going to be rolled out reasonably slowly over time, with new titles coming on board on a weekly basis.”

The first HarperCollins titles to be bundled in the programme are to include Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, Jeaniene Frost’s Halfway to the Grave, Kim Harrison’s Black Magic Sanction, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles, and Andrew Gross’ 15 Seconds.

New titles coming into play are to be promoted through HarperCollins’ Bookperk newsletter and on HC.com, as well as at the BitLit.com site, each bundled ebook costing the reader between $1.99 and $2.99.

Peter Hudson

“We’re going to start experimentally trying to find which titles will resonate,” says Hudson. “What kind of books are going to bundle well? We know that technical books and other nonfiction do quite well. We know that reference books do quite well. But when it comes to fiction and trade, we don’t know exactly which books are going to do best. So we’re starting out with a few to see which ones resonate.”

Prior to the beginning of the HarperCollins pilot programme, BitLit’s catalog of ebooks that can be bundled with print has totaled some 20,000 titles.

Its primary publisher relationships to date have offered users titles from the catalogs of O’Reilly Media, Osprey’s Angry Robot, the Chicago Review Press, the business-oriented Morgan-James, Baker Publishing Group, the independent publishers of IPG, and more.

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